Page 2 of The Stone Initiation
“You’re welcome.”
“Bbbbrrf grunge beck.”
“Yeah, buddy, it sucks. But that’s what they’re made to do. You can’t change that. You can’t make the others stop scaring kids.”
He sighed and plucked a marshmallow from his mug before popping it into his mouth.
I could have extinguished him a long time ago. Being half gargoyle afforded me some abilities and extinguishing tulpas was one of them, but aside from the fact that I loved the moany freak, using my abilities would expose what I was to the people of Old Town, and to my friends, and then it would only be a matter of time before the pure blood gargoyles found me. I was sure they kept tabs on spikes of power like extinguishing. I made sure, that when I hunted I did it the old-fashioned way.
It wasn’t easy keeping my abilities in check when people around me needed help. But I’d learned to use the tried and tested methods to take down the monsters. They seemed to work on the creatures roaming the Rim, although I’d heard the variants that occupied the city were a stronger, ancient breed to the ones out here.
The only creatures we had no defense against were the graynites.
“Buuurg.”
“Yeah, I was totally listening.”
“Hnnng, errr.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so I zoned out for a moment. Sorry.”
He reached across the table and placed his hand over mine. “Inggg arrrgh burrr, Romi.”
The mention of my brother made my chest tight. I hadn’t seen him for almost eight weeks now. It was the longest he’d gone without a visit, and I was beginning to worry, which was ridiculous of course.
“Romi’s fine. He’s always fine. He’s probably on some secret mission for the guardians.”
My gargoyle sibling was an elite. A pure blood. Part of the highest ranked unit in the Stonehaven Guardians. One of five, all born into the most powerful bloodlines.
He was older than me by a decade. But despite being busy training initiates he’d taken care of me after my human mother died, finding me a home, and checking in every few weeks. Until now.
He was fine. I was being ridiculous.
My phone rang shrilly. I snatched it up and answered quickly. “Hey.”
“Cameron, where are you?” There was an impatient snap to Teri’s voice that instantly had my back up, but I squashed my annoyance when I noted the time—still a minute after five. The damn thing had stopped, again.
The low-grade buzz of power in my limbs should have warned me that the sun had set.
A quick glance out of the window confirmed it. “Teri, I’m on my way.”
“Liar.”
I winced. “The clock stopped.”
“Get a fucking watch.”
“I’m allergic to nickel.”
“Urgh, just get here.”
“Give me thirty minutes. Donotgo in without me.”
“We’re not suicidal.”
No, they were savvy and smart, and they knew success against a nest required numbers.
I dropped a kiss on Derek’s cloaked head. “I’ll be back soon.”
